Panic
by Iniysa
Summary: A death, a freak storm and panic in the face of utter devastation. Minor character death, Alan Whump I edited and added A LOT! So if you've read it, feel free to read again. :


Panic

By Lauren Freeman

One-Shot

Disclaimer: I do not own The Thunderbirds. No money is being made from this short story.

A/N: This is the up-dated version! I tried to fix all the spelling mistakes, there are bound to be more. I also added A LOT to the story, so read it again if you like. I have no idea where this came from. I was not thinking about the Thunderbirds, at all. But I put my hands on the keyboard and this is the result. :) A minor character death is involved and A little bit of Alan whump, of course. Stupid broken spell-check.

Panic

"Anyways, I have packed up all the bedrooms and will get started on the living room tonight. Uncle Sam will be heading up here with the trailer in the morning to take the next loads off to storage, our hanger and the donation centers." Alan reported to his father as he looked up from the video phone conversation they were having. He had not seen his family in three months now, having temporarily moved to the Tracy Farm in Kansas in order to pack it up after the trying, emotional, extremely sad passing of there grandmother. It had been unexpected, she had been fine; they had all eaten dinner together for the first time in weeks due to rescues and the fact that at least one of them was always on Five. But that night they had all been together and everyone was genuinely happy. She did not show up for breakfast the next morning, Alan had volunteered to go check on her as he was heading in that direction anyways to do some work for one of Threes new systems; so he had been the one to find her, at first it appeared that she was simply sleeping in. But she would not wake up, there was no raise of her chest, upon further hasty inspection, there was no pulse beneath her cold skin.

The chaos that took place next would leave the Tracy household in a state of utter shock. Alan had seen dead bodies before, he worked for IR after all, but this was different. This was wrong on the deepest level of... everything. This was family, his grandmother! It took him a full five minutes to catch his breath as he leaned against what had been just hours before his living, breathing, berating, loving full of life grandmother. When he finally hit the comm button on his watch, tears were running down his face, dripping onto his shirt unnoticed.

"Alan, what's wrong?" Jeff asked from his position at his desk where he had received a comm message from a son who's tracker stated was only down the hall. His first instinct was to be angry, the comm's were not to be used to be lazy, they were for work and emergencies. But Alan's teary face stopped any comments abruptly. He had not seen Alan cry since he was seven years old. Living in a house of older brothers who would tease you constantly for showing any weakness had toughened him up quickly.

"Dad... Grandma..." That was all Alan had to say before he dropped what he was doing and ran full tilt for his mothers room. He stopped dead in his tracks at the sight before him, knowing instantly there was nothing to be done. News spread around the island within minutes, the small suit Grandma Tracy slept in quickly filled with shocked and crying family.

The funeral had taken place in Kansas, where they buried her in the Tracy section of the cemetery right next to her late husband, very near where the Tracy's had buried their mother and in Jeff's case, his wife. The island wasn't the same; bickering was constant, fights were long, loud and drawn out. It had been years since Alan had, had such horrible fights with his family about absolutely nothing. They had all grown out of that phase as they reached adulthood. In the meantime, Alan had helped the family pack up and go through his grandmothers thing in her room, it had gotten him curious about his family. Unlike his brothers, Alan's only memories were of living on the island. He had visited the Kansas house where most of his brothers spent the majority of there young life, a few times. Where generations of Tracy's had lived and farmed. It was where his mother had lived before her untimely death when he himself was only five. It took some convincing, more like a lot of convincing but in the end Alan escaped the growing arguments and fights and got permission to go to Kansas, to start the long awaited, much needed clean up and packing of their old home.

He had called his father on the recently installed video phone to let him know of his slow moving progress that was keeping him away from IR for so long. In truth he could have been done with this within the first week. He could have just hired a crew to do this and been done within a few days, but he was in no hurry. And despite all the cleaning and packing he was enjoying the vacation, going through his family's things. Pictures, home videos, old books, letters and notes. He found out that his grandfather stored emergency money in the old family Bible. He would never admit to his brothers how much he had needed to know and see all of this, but he knew his father knew. That was why he had been aloud to stay gone for so long.

His fathers voice on the vid-phone was not what caught his attention at that moment, however. It was the sound of... a train?

"What is that noise?" He racked his memory for where the nearest train tracks were and came to the conclusion that no train should sound that close.

"What is it son?" Jeff asked, calmly. He was clearly working on paperwork in the background while they talked.

"A train?" As he said it, memories form the dozens of past rescues came forefront in his mind.

_Little seven year old Annabell from North Carolina, her pigtails matted with both dried and wet blood: "It sounded just like a train was coming through! Then everything was tearing apart and mommy was screaming to get in a tub, but I could not find the tub cause it was gone! Where's my mommy? I want my mommy!"_

_Maria from Oklahoma screeching for us to find her baby. "The Tornado sounded just like a train had derailed somewhere and was rolling down our street! The warning siren didn't even start blaring until it was already on top of us! Please, I can't find my baby!"_

Alan looked back at his dad, his face suddenly pale. "I think there's a tornado." He stated just as a siren began to blare. '_The warning siren didn't even start blaring until it was already on top of us!'_

"Get to the storm cellar, now!" Jeff yelled, all paperwork forgotten. Alan nodded once before dashing for the door. He never made it, the wall in front of him cracked. Making a u-turn as he instantly realized his way was blocked; he dived into the bathroom and into the tub. '_Mommy was screaming to get in a tub'. _Covering his head he heard the world around him tear apart. The house his family had grown up in for generations; ripped to pieces, wood shoved against each other, furniture flew through the air like they were as light as a feather, not the deadly projectiles they had become. The tub rocked and shook, a massive roar could be heard then a wall fell on top of the tub and the small space went pitch black. He could still hear the loud roar, muffled now; outside his refuge but it seemed to be moving farther and farther away until there was nothing but an eerie, all encompassing silence.

Alan pushed against the wall above him, to get out but quickly found that it was extremely heavy and nothing he did would move it. Suddenly the space was to small, a coffin with limited air supply. It took a full ten minutes before any rational thought came back to his panicked mind. As he had shifted a small amount of light had come through from somewhere below him. With further investigation he realized it was from the drain beneath his head. Turning over he looked down at grass and mud several feet below him. Fresh air came though the small drain, he sighed in relief.

A vibration on his wrist was the next thing to catch his attention, he could not believe that it wasn't the very first thing. The button on the left hand side of the red analog clock was pressed like it had been a hundred times, he didn't need to see where it was; the clock hands disappeared devoting the entire face of the watch to video screen. The bright light shining from the watch hurt his eyes for a moment before they adjusted. His fathers face filled the screen a moment later.

Jeff Tracy was frantic. His youngest being away from the family for so long was enough to make him anxious all by itself, so he made sure he kept in touch at least once a day. He had seen Alan going through his grandmothers things with a look of curiosity, though he was sure Alan hadn't been aware of him watching. Years of raising boys had made him a bit stealthy. So when Alan had come up with the idea to go take care of the old Kansas house he had known he was going to allow it eventually. But at that moment the loss of his mother had been so fresh, all he wanted was for his entire family to be together. His first reasons stated to Alan, as to why he couldn't go was International Rescue. But in truth, rescues had been slow recently; thank God. Jeff knew Alan had a lot of vacation time stored up, unlike his brothers, Alan was usually content with just hanging out on the beach when he needed some time away. He had watched as his family began to take there stress and grief out on each other. Alan was spending more and more time down at the beach, Virgil's painting and music had become a little more dark. Scott could be found in the cockpit of One most of the time. Gordon was swimming more laps then usual which in itself was a lot, and John volunteered to stay up on Five longer when the time came for Alan to come take his place for a month. So in the end he had made the flight plan himself and reluctantly let Alan know he was clear to go.

He had not regretted this decision until now. He had watched during his calls as Alan became more relaxed and began to look almost peaceful and happy. Now, however; the only thing he saw was the wall in front of the screen rip apart suddenly, a loud roar filled the speakers before the video disconnected violently, the screen going black followed by the red words: Call Ended. He began to call Alan's watch right away, thinking Alan would pick up. But he didn't, so Jeff tried again, and again each time becoming more and more frantic. Had Alan not made it to the shelter? Had he not made it at all? Oh God! Then after the longest ten minutes of his life, a signal connected to Alan's watch. The screen was black but he could hear the sound of breathing.

"Alan, are you alright?" Were the first wards Jeff Tracy stated with a since of relief now that his calls were finally being answered. In the back ground CNN showed footage of the destroyed towns including the one his son was in. The female news reporter who's wavy blond hair stood perfectly still despite the heavy winds, droned on about the devastation the freak tornado that had formed out of a clear blue sky had created.

"Dad?" Alan's voice sounded distorted at first.

"Are you alright?" Jeff asked again. His other sons walked into the room to find out what all the yelling was about just as John's worried face appeared on another screen.

"Dad! A tornado just destroyed a good portion of Kansas including the area Alan is in. Have you heard from him?" John asked panicked, a look of terror on his normally relaxed, good natured face.

"What?" Scott, Virgil and Gordan exclaimed rushing to the desk to find out the details.

"If you could all please quiet down, I am aware of the tornado. Alan and I were on the phone when it hit. I just got him on his watch but am not getting a visual." Jeff stated before turning back to the black screen connected to Alan.

"Alan?"

From the tiny bathtub he was currently curled in, trapped; Alan smiled as he listened to his brothers.

"Yeah, I'm here. I'm fine... I think. I never made it to the shelter, the tornado was already ripping up that part of the house. I jumped into the downstairs tub and a wall or something has trapped me in it." Alan explained.

"Alright, I'm glad your okay. We're on our way, we will work on getting you free." Jeff stated, sagging in his seat in utter relief.

Scott flew Tracy One to Kansas with record speed, landing in the now empty fields that used to be the Tracy farm, rather then the Tracy hanger ten miles away. From the air above as they came in for a landing, they could not help but gasp at the damage the short lived, freak tornado had caused everywhere; but most specifically the Tracy house. In reality there was no Tracy house anymore, nothing but pieces of foundation and debris. How had Alan survived this? It wasn't until they were practicly on it, did they find the mound that had to be covering the tub Alan was trapped in. Gordon had come up to them as they discussed how they were going to free Alan; looking pale.

"The shelters been destroyed." Gordon stated. "If Alan HAD gotten to it..." The rest of the family choose not to dwell on this fact, instead they focused on the rescue.

Two hours later Alan blinked as sharp, bright sun light hit his retinas blinding him briefly. As the spots cleared from his vision his family came into view, dirty with looks of exhaustion mixed with relief and happiness. He was free. Sitting up slowly, his brothers helped him stand and maneuver out of his make due shelter onto a piece of broken wood. There was nothing left. The house had been destroyed, wood and debris lay everywhere, the tub was the only thing left standing, a life raft in the middle of devastation. Looking up to the clear blue sky Alan said a quick but meaningful prayer in thanks.

His brothers and father were silent as they maneuvered back to solid ground slowly. Alan knew they would smother him to death once the shock of it all wore off. He also had a feeling that loosing this house would also have repercussion, happening so soon after their grandmothers death. But for now, he was happy to silently bask in the comfort of his family, it was time to go home.


End file.
